The Ties That Bind
by Mamph
Summary: This is a fic about the strength that people don’t realise they have until it’s needed. It focuses on the Bladebreakers, and at least one OC of my own creation, but there may be more added. I'm really bad at summeries so pleases just read this story, and
1. Chapter 1

This is my new story. It's my second proper fanfic and it's going to be quite different to my first story as it's going to be an action fic, but it will have some other elements to it too. I don't want to reveal too much about the story before I get it going, but it's about the strength that people don't realise they have until it's needed. It focuses on the Bladebreakers, and at least one OC of my own creation, but there may be more added. I'll have to see how it works out! Thanks for reading!  
Mamph.

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**The Ties That Bind.**

**Chapter 1.**

"Yeah! Go Dragoon!" Tyson yelled encouragement as his blade slammed into Draciel. "No. Come on Draciel. You can do it!"  
However Max wasn't quite good enough this time as his blade flew out of the stadium coming to rest at his feet.  
"He he! I won again Max."   
Max stared at the ground for a second, his face showing obvious disappointment, but then he reached down and picked up Draciel, attaching him once more to his launcher.  
"Let's go again!"   
"Yeah!" hollered Tyson, his enthusiasm not wavering for a second.  
"You can do it this time Max," cheered Ray.

The G revolutions team, or Bladebreakers, as they were also known, were training hard in the park near Tyson's dojo. There wasn't a tournament coming up, they just wanted to keep up their skills. After the Justice Five tournament all five of them had had to do some recuperation, some more than others, Kai in particular had disappeared for some time after Tyson's final battle, but now they were back together. They had always trained better as a team and now they were proving it. All five Bladers were improving steadily and they were in no doubt as to the fact that this year's tournament would be the hardest any of them had ever faced.

It soon started to get dark and the teens decided to call it a night.  
"Same time tomorrow Kai?"  
Kai wasn't staying at Tyson's dojo with the others. He'd decided to buy a small property in Japan seen as he spent so much of his time here, and it wasn't like he couldn't afford it with the fortune he had inherited from his Grandfather.  
"Yeah. See you later."  
The seven of them split off to their relevant homes in high spirits after their successful day of training. Kai smirked at the exuberance of his team and headed home.

He always took the "scenic" route home, alongside the river so that he was away from the roads and the possibility of being spotted by a fan. The route followed the river for half a mile or so going under a total of three bridges, the third of which he went over rather then under as his house was just next to it. In fact, the garden backed onto the river itself. It was at the second bridge that it happened. Under the bridge were always piles of random rubbish that people had dumped there instead of taking it to the nearest official dump. Kai was always careful to quickly go around the rubbish as there was no telling what was under all the boxes and bags that lay there. It was occasionally taken away by the rubbish collectors, but to Kai's knowledge that hadn't been done for several weeks. However, when walked past this time, he stopped. There was movement underneath the rubbish. This wasn't unusual as rats and other small animals were frequent visitors to the dump, but this movement was different. Kai listened intently in the direction of the movement and could just make out the noise of sounded like quiet sobbing. Kai's curiosity was now more then aroused as he took a step closer to the sound. He wasn't the kind of person to usually care if others were crying but it was strange to him that this person was crying in this place. It wasn't exactly the first place you'd think to come to when you were upset.  
"Hello? Is anyone there?"   
The rubbish suddenly jolted as if something underneath them had jumped in a confined space.  
"Are you alright?" Kai asked tentatively, aware that he had just made whoever it was jump, and he was conscious of not scaring them again.  
Kai got no reply, and the movement seemed to have stopped. The pile was completely still, as Kai stood and waited. Confused, he stepped closer to the pile and pulled away some of the wet cardboard from where he thought the sounds had come from.

After pulling several bits away he saw that he was uncovering some kind of tunnel. Suddenly Kai was thrown backwards as a dirty, ripped ball of rags flew out of the tunnel towards him. He just about managed to stay on his feet as he stumbled backwards clutching his chest and gasping for air. The 'ball' had punched right into his gut and had winded him. Kai looked up just in time to see the 'ball' running as fast as it could in the opposite direction. Through watery eyes he could just about make out that the 'ball' had in fact been a person. From the build, he reckoned it was a girl, about his age, maybe younger, certainly no older, but he couldn't be sure as even now she was moving incredibly quickly out of his field of vision. She was dressed in a heavily stained t-shirt, and an equally stained pair of shorts. He couldn't make out any shoes, so he assumed she was barefoot, and she had pretty wild looking dark hair, although it was also very dirty so it was probably supposed to be lighter.

Kai coughed and straightened up as he got back his breath. He looked across at where the girl had been only moments before, and then looked to the direction that she had taken off in. What on earth had she been doing amongst all that rubbish, and why had she taken off so quickly when he had approached her? He watched the figure receding into the distance for a while longer before deciding that there was nothing he could do to answer these questions and continued home...

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That's it for chapter 1.  
Hope you liked it.  
If you did, just let me know by leaving a review.  
Thanks in advance!  
Mamph. 


	2. Chapter 2

Ok. Here's chapter 2. I figured I'd put two up at once so that it would be easier for readers to get a feel for the story. Hope you like it!

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**The Ties That Bind.**

**Chapter 2.**

The next day...

"Please. Leave me alone."  
She whispered as she lay on the floor, curled tightly in a ball. She trembled uncontrollably as the four boys closed in on her.  
"Why should we?" One of the boys sneered. He was a tall, thick set kid, with dark hair that flopped over one side of his face. He wore a black hooded top, black jeans, and trainers. He was 16 years old and was the leader of a gang that called themselves the Cool Gang. It was a lame name and everybody knew it, but still nobody messed with them. They were the most dangerous bullies in the town, and most people kept their distance from them. Even some of the adults avoided them. The leader's name was Toby and he was the nastiest of the four. His eyes gleamed with malice as he advanced on the young girl in front of him, his three comrades closing in behind him.  
Said comrades were also wearing dark coloured hooded jackets and jeans, and were almost as cruel as their leader.  
There was Chris, with short light brown hair that was spiked up at the front; Mike, who was the shortest of the group, with long black hair that got him many accusations of being female, which were always rewarded with a good, solid punch, and then there was Pete who was the youngest of the group. Whereas the other three members of the gang were 16, Pete was only 14, but he had gotten initiated into the group after proving himself to be the worst student in his year at school, after slashing the tyres of the Head teacher's car, and then spray painting as many swear words as he could fit on onto it. That stunt had cost him several months of detention, and cost his parents rather a large bill for the damage, but it had also gained him entrance to the Cool Gang.

"We don't want scum like you littering up our patch!" Mike said giving the lump in front of him a swift kick to the ribs. The girl twitched and groaned in pain, but made no attempt to get up for fear of being hit again.

"Come on! Get out of here!" Chris yelled.  
The girl unfurled slightly in order to see her attackers faces. Hoping that they were really letting her go she started to get up but just as she'd gotten to her feet, a brutal punch was delivered to her stomach and she crumpled to the ground, wrapping her arms around herself in pain.  
"Did we say you could get up? No. I don't think we did."  
The four boys looked down at the dishevelled lump on the pavement and grinned. They enjoyed tormenting this kid. They'd noticed her a few weeks ago, and now they regularly went looking for her after it had gotten dark to let out some of their frustrations at being cooped up in school when they'd much rather be out causing trouble. She was a homeless kid who'd seemed to have just moved to the town. She'd been in a bad state then, but now after regular beatings from the Cool Gang, she looked half dead. There was a large cut above her left eye, and her lip had been split several times. If the boys had lifted her top, they'd have seen multiple bruises littering her stomach area from the frequent blows she received from them. Her arms and legs also held an array of multi coloured bruises, although these were less noticeable through the dirt and grime.

"Come on guys, I think she's learnt her lesson for today." Toby said to his comrades, nodding sagely as though he was a teacher acknowledging the end of a lesson. The gang turned and headed back out of the alley they had been in, not forgetting to spit on the now sobbing girl that they were leaving behind. They may have been cruel and unkind but they were not unintelligent, they knew that if they hurt the girl too badly then she may be forced to go to a hospital and then they' be in trouble. At the moment, because the girl was homeless, she seemed to be wary of places like hospitals and police stations, so the gang knew that they were safe from repercussions, at least for now.

The girl lay there for a while, hugging her knees to her chest and crying softly. She knew that there was nothing she could do about the boys. She couldn't go to the police, it was too dangerous. All she could do was hide from the boys, and when they did find her, she just had to lie there and take it. It never lasted too long and they usually tired of it before seriously hurting her. After a few minutes, she dragged herself to her feet and limped down the alley towards the park, and the relative safety of the trees until morning.

"Come on Daichi! You gotta give me some kind of a challenge!" Tyson said cockily, folding his arms across his chest and pointing his nose in the air in a highly irritation fashion.  
Daichi screwed up his face, but then noticing that Tyson had taken his eye off the match, smirked.  
"You shouldn't get so complacent Tyson. Go Gaia Dragoon!" Daichi's blade suddenly soared into the air using the side of the dish as a launch pad and came crashing down directly on top of Tyson's blade, knocking it off balance. Not missing a trick, Daichi's blade circled the dish and slammed into a wobbling Dragoon, booting it neatly out of the stadium.  
The look on Tyson's face was priceless as Daichi copied his previous pose. "You gotta give me some kind of challenge Tyson!"  
Said loser then leapt across the stadium at the younger Blader, only to be stopped mid air by Ray who had decided to intervene before things got out of hand.  
"Daichi! Stop tormenting Tyson." However, even Ray, one of the calmest of the group had difficult keeping a straight face as Daichi continued to imitate a now furious Tyson.  
"And Tyson, you shouldn't get to cocky. It's your fault you lost. You should always be focussed on the battle even if you know you can win."  
Tyson finally stopped struggling against Ray and he cautiously released Tyson, aware that this could just be a ploy to get him to do exactly that, but Tyson just smiled.  
"OK then. I think we should go again then. I'll beat you this time you little monkey boy." Tyson yelled enthusiastically. Ray, Max and Kenny sighed at their friend's energy and prepared for the next battle.

Kai simply stood there watching over all this. He was distracted today. For some reason he could not get that girl out of his head. Something about her had seemed odd to him, even though he'd only seen her for a few seconds before she'd disappeared. He closed his eyes and thought back to the night before.  
"Kai?"  
Kai was suddenly brought back to the present, opening his eyes to see a worried Ray standing in front of him.  
"Are you alright? You seem a bit distant today."  
"I'm fine." Kai replied confidently. "I was just thinking. That's all."  
Ray seemed happy enough with that response, and went back to refereeing the rematch between Daichi and Tyson.  
Kai watched the battle, pushing any thoughts of the girl to the back of his mind. He was soon absorbed in analysing his friends' abilities as Tyson finally beat Daichi, and Ray and Max started to battle.

"It's getting dark guys. I think we should be heading home." Kenny informed the teens, looking up at the gradually darkening sky.   
Max looked up from his heated battle against Daichi, and seeing that the stars were in fact out looked down at his watch.  
"Yeah. It is past eight o'clock guys."  
"OK. I guess we should be heading back then." Agreed Ray, the others nodding with him.  
The six teens said their goodbyes and headed off in their respective directions; Kai back to his home along the river, Tyson and Ray back to Tyson's Dojo, Kenny back to his home, and Max back to his dad's hobby shop. Max always took the route through the small wood towards the far end of the park as it led out onto the bottom of the road on which his dad's shop could be found. After cheerfully waving to his retreating friends, he turned and made his way across the park towards said wood.

As he walked through the trees, he thought back to the day's training. It had gone well today. He hadn't actually won any of his battles, but he could tell that he was improving, and after he had made those modifications on his blade that he'd been working on he was sure that he would win. Max was absorbed in these thoughts when he was suddenly brought back to reality by a twig snapping over to his right. He peered into the darkness trying to see what had caused the sound. His hand closed on the Beyblade in his pocket, ready to launch it at anything that came at him. He knew it wasn't a conventional defence weapon, but it was surprising how much damage a Beyblade could to when launched with enough power. After a few moments, Max was satisfied that it had just been an animal or something and he relaxed his grip on Draciel. However, it was at that moment that he heard a low groan coming from the direction of the twig snapping sound. He tensed again, and ventured forwards into the trees. He could see a shape ahead of him on the ground. It wasn't a huge shape, but he quickly realised that it wasn't a small animal like he'd thought. He grasped Draciel tighter, it's sharp points starting to dig into his palm, but then he recognized what the shape was and his hand relaxed. I was a person. He was pretty sure it was a girl, but they were curled up in a ball so he wasn't sure. She didn't appear to be moving as he edged his way closer to her.   
"Hello?" He asked cautiously.  
He got no reply and so he moved next to the girl and knelt beside her. He gently rocked her shoulders, again getting no reply. He could see her chest rising and falling softly, so he knew that she was at least alive. As carefully as he could, he rolled the girl so that she was lying on her back, which was when he saw the injuries. He gasped in shock, falling backwards onto his backside. She looked a right state. She was covered in darkening bruises. There was what appeared to be a fresh cut above her left eye, and her lip was swollen, and looked like it had been bleeding. His first thought was to all an ambulance, but then he noticed her clothing. She was obviously poor, and probably homeless. She probably wouldn't want the emergency services involved. Her injuries, when looking at them more closely, did not look that severe, it was just the sheer number of them that made them look worse then they actually were.  
However, he couldn't just leave her here. He wasn't that far from home so he gently scooped her up bridal style and continued home. She was incredibly light, and Max cringed at the fact that he could feel her bones through her clothing as he carried her. He was glad for the fact that it was night time as he would hate to think what this would have looked like had anyone seen him carrying the young girl through the streets in this state...

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Done. If you liked it then hit that review button! Thanks!  
Mamph 


	3. Chapter 3

...he couldn't just leave her here. He wasn't that far from home so he gently scooped her up bridal style and continued home. She was incredibly light, and Max cringed at the fact that he could feel her bones through her clothing as he carried her. He was glad for the fact that it was night time as he would hate to think what this would have looked like had anyone seen him carrying the young girl through the streets in this state...

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**The Ties That Bind.**

**Chapter 3.**

As Max got to his front door, he suddenly realised that he wouldn't be able to open the door with his arms full, so he gently sat the girl against the wall and searched his pockets for the key. He quietly opened the door and looked around for any signs that his Dad was around. He knew that he should probably tell his dad about the girl, but for some reason he felt that it would be best not to. He didn't want to worry him, but more importantly he didn't want his dad to involve the authorities without the girl's consent. It didn't seem fair to not let her have a say in the matter.

After seeing that the coast was clear, he once again picked the girl up and hurried into the house carefully pushing the door shut with his foot after him. He then made his way over to the stairs and up to his bedroom. He laid the girl down on his bed and stood back stretching his arms to get the feeling back into them. The girl may not have been heavy, but he could definitely feel that he'd been carrying her. Seen as he hadn't yet seen or heard from his dad, he figured that he was probably in the workshop at the bottom of the garden. He had his musings confirmed by looking out of the window to see the glow coming from the window of the workshop, signalling that someone was in there. His dad could quite often be found down there fixing the blades that were brought into the shop on a daily basis.

Max looked down at the girl and realised that the first job would be to tend to the open wound on her forehead. He left the room and got a bowl of lukewarm water, several wash cloths, a towel and the first aid kit form under the sink.  
He noticed, with relief that the girl hadn't moved whilst he'd been away, when he returned to his room, and so he put down the items he had collected and closed the door behind him. Max knelt beside his bed and rinsed one of the cloths in the bowl of water. He squeezed out much of the moisture and then gently dabbed the wound on the girl's forehead. He paused and watched for any reaction to the pressure and saw that the girl's brow furrowed slightly. He took this to be a good sign. If she was reacting to him then she wasn't unconscious, just passed out. He continued to clean the wound, and in the process ended up cleaning most of the dirt off her face.  
He soon realised, as he revealed more and more of her face that this girl as no older than himself. Nor was she much younger. He rinsed the wash cloth and reached for the first aid kit. He squeezed a little antiseptic onto his finger and gently rubbed it around the wound. Again, the girl twitched, although this time her body moved as well as her head and Max recoiled thinking that she was going to wake up but she soon stopped and relaxed into her sleep. The young blonde breathed a sigh of relief and went back to the first aid kit.  
The gash on the girl's head looked as though it could need stitches and of course that was not something Max was willing or able to attempt so he came up with an alternative. He got out some plasters and cut them into small strips. He then very carefully laid them across the wound, pulling the two edges of it together. He tried to be as gentle as he could in order to not disturb the girl's sleep and was soon finished. After completing this, he realised that he'd been holding his breath and chuckled, despite of himself. He sat back on his haunches and watched the gentle rise and fall of the girl's chest as she slept, and felt a pang of pity at the wretchedness of her appearance. He couldn't quite believe that he currently had a strange, homeless teenager on his bed, and it surprised him that he was handling it so well.  
He suddenly felt very tired, and in response to this thought gave a wide yawn. Suddenly realising that his bed would now be taken for the night, he got up and pulled his covers over the girl. He then went over to the cupboard and got out a large fluffy blanket that he usually only used when it was really cold. He then dragged his beanbag over to the bed and sat down on the floor against it, using it as a large pillow. He then pulled the blanket over himself and was asleep before you could say 'let it rip!'

As morning crept through the barely closed curtain's of Max's bedroom, the young girl on his bed began to stir. Her eyes gradually opened, and slowly adjusted to the brightness of the sunlight. It was then that she suddenly realised that she was in a bed, an actual bed. She sat bolt upright and looked around her wildly. Where was she? How had she got here? She flung the covers off herself and jumped off the bed, her eyes anxiously searching for clues around the room. Her eyes fell upon the young boy lying on the floor next to the bed. She hastily backed away from him, coming to an abrupt stop as she hit the wall. She noticed that the boy was asleep and relaxed slightly, although still not happy with the situation. It was then that she saw the blood stained rags and open first aid kit on the desk next to the bed. Her eyes darted from the boy to the kit and back again, and then felt across her forehead for the gash, and felt the little strips plaster across it. Her gaze once again fell to the boy and she studied him curiously. Had he helped her? If so, why? She was scum. She didn't deserve to be treated with any kind of respect. Or at least that's what those boys who'd hurt her had said, and she believed it to be true. She had never had anyone be nice to her before, not that she remembered anyway. The boy stirred and she pressed herself against the wall, afraid that if she was seen, he might hurt her, just like everyone else. The boy's head rolled sideways before his eyes blinked open sleepily.

As his eyes focussed, Max realised that the girl he'd found the night before was now standing in of him; her eyes wide with fear, her hands trying to get some kind of grip on the wall behind her. Max sat upright and tried to look as non-threatening as possible.  
"Hi." He said, quietly, not sure how the girl would react to being spoken to. She pressed herself up against the wall even more and searched the room frantically for a way out.  
Max made a move to stand up and the girl yelped in panic, shivering uncontrollably. Max stopped and remained on the floor, however the girl's eyes suddenly came to rest on the door and she bolted through it faster then Max could have imagined possible. He leapt to his feet quickly, not sure what he was going to say to calm the startled girl.  
"Wait!... Er... I'm not going to hurt you!" He shouted after her. He heard her pounding down the stairs and tore after her, conscious of the fact that his dad would be in the shop and would be able to hear all of this. He got down the stairs just in time to see the girl yank open the front door and race through it. He ran to the door, stopping briefly to pull on his shoes. He stepped out of the door and looked up and down the street for the girl but could see nothing. She'd gone. He sighed and peered each way one last time only to see his dad walking up the road.  
"Morning Max! Just popped out to the shops. Sorry did I worry you?"  
"What?"  
"You're standing in the middle of the street. Were you looking for me?"  
"Oh...Oh yeah. I was. But you're here now."  
Max smiled brightly at his father, but then frowned as he turned back to the streets. His dad watched Max's face with some confusion, but then chose to ignore it as he obviously wasn't going to get anything more out of him.   
"Come on. I'll get some breakfast going. You look like you could do with some food in you!"  
"Yeah...ok." Max replied, not really listening. He took one last look at the streets and then turned to follow his dad into the house, quietly pondering the strange young girl who had appeared and then disappeared from his life so quickly...

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There you go third chapter. Hope you like it! If you do just let me know! Also if there's anything you don't like let me know. I'm always happy to receive constructive criticism. By the way I need a name for the girl in this story. I've got a few but I'm not really happy with them, so any suggestions would be really useful.  
Mamph. 


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